This coffee maker is a bit finicky to program, but the resulting coffee we brewed turned out to be excellent.
The KRUPS Savoy best coffee maker can produce a maximum of 12 cups of tasty coffee or, if you prefer, just one to four cups if you do not need so much java. This streamlined coffee maker features a large LCD display that you can watch as you program the device, and you can see the water level through a clear indicator.
This medium-sized coffee maker is made of brushed stainless steel and black plastic. It includes a built-in water filter to help improve the flavor and smell of any tap water you might use to brew. For the brewing process, you can either make use of the gold mesh permanent filter that comes with it or use paper filters if that is what you prefer. The brew basket is cone shaped, which a number of coffee fans insist makes a better-tasting pot of coffee since the water and grounds are compressed by gravity into the bottom of the brew basket to extract the fullest flavor from the grounds.
This coffee maker offers an adjustable dial that you can rotate or push for different settings along with round buttons for the automatic on function, the choice between regular and bold strengths, the choice of the one-to-four cup amount and the cleaning function. In addition, there are small rectangular buttons that let you set the warming plate temperature and time.
If you are desperate for coffee in the morning, this also presents an automatic brew pause function so you can quickly grab a cup without coffee from the brew basket dribbling all over. One small but appealing feature is the mouth of the carafe, which is designed in such a way that the coffee pours out smoothly and easily because the way the lip curves essentially prevents drips.
You can adjust the temperature for keeping coffee warm, and you get a choice of high, medium or low. You can also set the coffee maker to keep it warm for as long as four hours at 15-minute increments.
Unfortunately, we encountered some difficulties when programming this coffee maker since some settings would not stay set and the machine needed to be reprogrammed, and as a result it ranked low on our ease of use score.
Other tests showed that the KRUPS Savoy produced freshly brewed coffee at a commendable 176 degrees F., which is nicely hot and approximately the temperature many coffee lovers prefer. However, after sitting in the glass carafe for 15 minutes on the warming plate, it had dropped 13 degrees. Only one other coffee maker we tested showed such a dramatic drop-off in temperature.
Nonetheless, the temperature drop did not deter our taste testing panel in the least. The members ranked this coffee’s flavor, aroma and strength among the best coffee maker brands we tested. Virtually all our panel members liked the coffee the KRUPS Savoy produced and gave it top-notch marks.